‘If not us, who? And if not now, when?’ That was the challenge from Network Rail CEO Andrew Haines to railway operators attending the Golden Whistles conference on 8 March.
Mr Haines acknowledged the performance challenges currently facing the railway, for a variety of reasons. Highlighting research from the Great British Railways Transition Team under the banner of the Passenger Revenue Optimisation Plan, Mr Haines said there is the potential for the industry to gain tens of millions of extra journeys and hundreds of millions of pounds of extra revenue if reliability improves. ‘Before we ask for more services, the best thing we can do is demonstrate we can do what we do well’ Mr Haines said, categorising this as keeping services running, recovering quickly and providing a better customer service response at times of disruption.
